


A Ghost in Gotham

by SassyAngel



Series: DC AU [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Danny Phantom, Robin: Son of Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crack Relationships, Crossover, Cussing, Fluff and Angst, Ghosts, Jazz is best sister, Light Angst, M/M, Maddie and Jack Fenton aren't good parents, Teenagers, Vlad Masters redemption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25775182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyAngel/pseuds/SassyAngel
Summary: Danny hated Vlad with a passion but he also held some sort of respect from him. Their relationship was impossibly complicated, bordering between being mortal enemies and best of allies. There have been times where Vlad was the only person in the entire world that he could relate to, both being half-dead science experiments gone wrong and all that. There have also been times where Danny wanted nothing more than to pummel Vlad’s face in and curse him to high hell.So when Vlad came to him for a favor, Danny squinted his eyes with high distrust. He had to be civil, since he was Fenton at the moment and his parents were around, but he sure as hell wouldn’t be dropping his guard anytime soon. “Let me get this straight, you want me to join you in your rich people party as your honorary son and plus one?” Danny deadpanned.“Yes, that’s about it.”Or...In which Danny Fenton has to go to Gotham to stop ghost shenanigans from ensuing.Vlad gets a redemption arch because I genuinely think that (at first) if he only got his head out of his ass then he'd be a cool psuedo dad.No idea if I'll actually continue this, I just wanted to post what I had written so far haha...
Relationships: Batfamily Members & Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton & Bruce Wayne, Danny Fenton & Danielle "Dani" Phantom, Danny Fenton & Dick Grayson, Danny Fenton & Jason Todd, Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters, Danny Fenton/Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Danny Fenton, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Series: DC AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869862
Comments: 111
Kudos: 966





	1. Chapter 1

Danny hated Vlad with a passion but he also held some sort of respect from him. Their relationship was impossibly complicated, bordering between being mortal enemies and best of allies. There have been times where Vlad was the only person in the entire world that he could relate to, both being half-dead science experiments gone wrong and all that. There have also been times where Danny wanted nothing more than to pummel Vlad’s face in and curse him to high hell. 

So when Vlad came to him for a favor, Danny squinted his eyes with high distrust. He had to be civil, since he was Fenton at the moment and his parents were around, but he sure as hell wouldn’t be dropping his guard anytime soon. “Let me get this straight, you want me to join you in your rich people party as your honorary son and plus one?” Danny deadpanned. 

“Yes, that’s about it.” Vlad gave him a tight smile. 

“Well Danny would be happy to go! You’re pretty much family anyways.” Jack grinned wildly, slapping his hand on Danny’s back. Not for the first time, Danny wanted to smack some sense to his dad. He wanted nothing more than to laugh at Vlad for even thinking they could survive a week together in the same space without throttling each other. He also wanted coffee because he was half asleep where he stood, but Jazz had a thing against caffeine and hid the coffee machine. Something about 16 year old teenagers not needing several cups of coffee a day in order to function and really, Danny, this is going to kill you. Jokes on her, he’s already half-dead.

“Dad, I have school.” If it had been anyone else asking him he’d take the easy out of school, but this was Vlad. He didn’t like Vlad. Honestly, he was still miffed at Vlad after another one of his ‘trying to kidnap his mom and show her how much better he is’ schemes he pulled the week prior. The dude needs to realize that usually, when someone says no they mean no. Consent was a beautiful thing; sexy, even. 

“May I speak with Daniel alone for a moment, Jack?” Vlad plastered a smile on his face. Danny sighed when his dad simply nodded energetically and left them to their own devices. Really, he’d have hoped his dad would read his mood and realize that he really, really didn’t want to be in a room alone with Vlad. Before the other halfa could say anything, Danny crossed his arms and opened his mouth to argue.

“You do realize that us being alone together usually results in a stalemate where we nearly get each other killed? We barely last a day together, I doubt we’d last a week.” He noticed Vlad begrudgingly nodding along.

“Oh, that much is obvious. Unfortunately, I need you for this.” When Danny raised a brow, Vlad sighed. He knew he wouldn’t convince the boy to join him unless he knew the full truth. “The conference is a scientific gathering of great minds; unfortunately, there is one such mind that took interest in the possibilities of other realms.” When Danny kept looking at him blankly, Vlad sighed. “They made a ghost portal, you fool.” Vlad hissed, and Danny straightened up. 

“What?” Danny really did not want another player in this game. It was bad enough Amity had become a ghost infested town, he did not want to have to deal with another town being ghost central. 

“Yes. Now do you see why I want you to join me?” Vlad stared at Danny, daring him to say otherwise. He received a groan as an answer and he immediately knew Danny would be joining him after all. “Wonderful. Hopefully, we can render the portal useless before it’s turned on for the first time. If not,” he sighed, “well, at least we know how to fight together.” 

“I’m guessing I’ll have to buy a suit? I hate suits.” He muttered the last part to himself. Vlad smiled, finding Danny’s grumbling endearing. He still saw Danny as someone who could be his son, even if they were enemies. Perhaps one day.

“I’ll buy you your formal wear.” Vlad promised, already knowing the boy wouldn’t be able to get anything decent. Danny frowned, but accepted Vlad’s offer. If Vlad bought him something embarrassing to wear, well he was his guest. 

“I’ll be sure to bring the thermos.” Danny just hoped Amity Park would be okay for the week he’d be gone.

“No, leave that for your friends. I’ll have two other thermos built.” Sometimes Danny forgot that Vlad wasn’t just rich, he was also smart. Of course he could build his own thermos. He was also thankful he wouldn’t leave Amity unprotected. 

“Great. When do we leave?” Danny already took out his phone to text Sam and Tucker. Surely they could handle a week without him. Surely it all wouldn’t go to shit.

“Five days.” Vlad answered. “I’ll pick you up at 6am. Our flight is at 10. Do try not to be late.”

“Hey!” Danny grumbled, glaring at Vlad’s amused smirk. What a dick. “Do I need to bring anything? Prepare for anything?” 

“No. I’ll be paying for our finances, that includes meals and emergencies. Perhaps even souvenirs if you ask politely.” Vlad easily ignored Danny’s murderous glare. “Just bring enough clothes to last you a week, identification and any other essentials.” 

“Okay.” He was thankful when Vlad quickly left after that. He really, really wasn’t going to look forward to this three day conference. Well, at least he wouldn’t have to deal with school.

\--*--

Not for the first time, Danny was reminded about how he clearly wasn’t a morning person. If it hadn’t been for Jazz being a beautiful human being that blessed his life by being his sister, he probably would’ve still been in bed promptly ignoring his alarm clock. He had a hard enough time waking up at 7am for school on a weekday but making him wake up at 5am on a Sunday was just murderous, especially when he went to bed at 2am because Box Ghost was in a mood. Danny thanked any deity listening for the warm cup of coffee Jazz put on his hands.

“I love you.” Danny said with emotion as he took his first few sips, feeling life energy be restored to his body through caffeine.

“I hate that you only ever say that when I give you coffee.” Jazz muttered, rolling her eyes but smiled at him. After a moment, her smile faded and there was a frown on her gentle face. “Are you sure you have to go? What if this is a trap?” Danny sighed, already having thought of that option. It would be all too easy for Vlad to screw him over while he was away from anyone who could potentially help him, but this wasn’t really how the older man played. Vlad’s schemes were usually more on the devious and elaborate side of the evil spectrum, taking Danny to Gotham just to get revenge seemed almost too boring compared to some of the things he’s pulled.

“It’ll be fine.” Danny put on his brightest smile. “I have you on speed dial if anything happens.” Jazz nodded, clearly approving of this. “I’ve also called Dani for backup, she should be here to help you guys out with ghosts. Take her out to lunch for me?” His only regret was that he’d miss Dani while in Gotham, but he knew they’d have to have a get together soon enough. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” Sam said encouragingly. Danny blinked, not having registered his two best friends walking into his house as if it was their own… Honestly, at this point it might as well be. He smiled at Sam and Tucker, grateful they came to send him off. It almost made up for both of his parents forgetting he was leaving today and going out on a ghost hunt; again, thank you Box Ghost. 

“Keep us updated okay?” Tucker practically demanded, and Danny nodded along. He’d probably be texting them nonstop throughout the entire ordeal; except for the plane ride, phones aren’t usually allowed in those. 

At 6am sharp, Vlad’s car pulled in and Danny’s heart sank with dread. He really wasn’t looking forward to spending almost an entire week with one Vlad Masters. He groaned and put his suitcase in the trunk next to Vlad’s. With one last group hug with Jazz, Sam and Tucker, he opened the car door and got in. Vlad was smiling tersely at him and his group of friends, probably ignoring the glares he was receiving.

“Are you ready, Daniel?” He asked.

“As I’ll ever be.” Danny groaned, sinking into his seat and really hoping the two of them don’t accidentally murder each other before they can destroy the third ghost portal.

\--*--

“I’ve decided I hate planes.” Danny muttered the moment his feet landed on precious, precious soil. Behind him, Vlad simply rolled his eyes. 

“I must admit, being confined with you for three hours was rather unpleasant.” Vlad sneered. “What’s more unpleasant was how they didn’t even offer first class.” Since the flight wasn’t big or long the highest quality seating was Business class, which was what they rode. Danny definitely wasn’t complaining about that, especially having never ridden a plane before; his only complaints were the stale air and how turbulent the ride was. He was half tempted to just go ghost and fly home on his own. He could do that, right?

“Can we just go to our hotel so I can find a coffee shop and promptly revive myself?” Danny groaned. “I would murder for coffee right now.” 

“For once you’ve said something I can agree to.” Vlad hummed, going over to a booth in the airport labeled ‘Car Rentals Here.’ Danny blinked in surprise before frowning and catching up to him.

“Hell no, we are not bonding over coffee.” Danny hissed. Before Vlad could say anything else, though, Danny decided he would much rather be anywhere but here. “I’m going to go get our luggage while you get the car.”

“You do that.” With a nod, Danny turned towards the conveyor belt and waited for his and Vlad’s suitcases to show up. 

Between that, picking up their car, dealing with traffic and getting to the hotel, it was already almost noon and Danny was getting hungry. Actually, it was almost noon in Eastern time and he was a Central boy. It was almost one and he was getting hungry and cranky. He’s a growing boy with genetically modified ghost DNA, he’s allowed to get hangry. He needed his nutrients in the form of fast food and coffee and he needed them hours ago.

The moment they entered their room, a suite with two separate rooms and a living room, Danny threw his luggage in it and turned to Vlad. “Great, we have our room. I’m going to go and find the nearest fast food joint.” He plucked one of the room key cards from Vlad’s hand and immediately started making his way towards the elevator. “See ya!” 

“We need to go over our plan regarding the conference.” Danny sighed, really not wanting to do that now.

“Can’t we do that later?” He didn’t whine, but it was a close thing.

“We can do it over lunch.” Great, now he had to eat lunch with Vlad Masters. He hoped whatever restaurant the guy picked wouldn’t be so high end that their food would take literal hours to get finished. “Is McDonalds satisfactory?” 

Wait, what? Danny blinked, utterly confused. Vlad Masters, the visual embodiment of entitled rich guy, wanted McDonalds?

“I’m hungry and it’s fast. Sue me.” Vlad rolled his eyes as he pressed the button for the elevator.

“Yeah, that’s fair.” 

It didn’t take them longer than ten minutes to find their chosen restaurant, order their food and begin their meal. Danny ate with such gusto that even Vlad was impressed. When Vlad raised a brow at his less-than-ideal table manners, Danny simply shrugged. “I’m hungry and it’s fast. Sue me.” He smirked, earning yet another eye roll from Vlad.

“So the event itself will be a three day long conference, as you are well aware.” Vlad started once he finished munching on a fry. “The first night, tomorrow, is going to serve as an ice breaker. It is going to be a formal event, much like a party, where all invited guests mingle and converse. On this night, we’ll start looking for the device or at least find out if anyone knows anything about it.” Danny nodded, paying attention for once. “The second day will be when the conference truly begins, with many intelligent minds showcasing their findings with presentations. Hopefully, the person who made the portal will present their findings on this day before the big reveal at night. During this time, you are free to do whatever you want as I will be stuck in endless presentations.” Danny didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for Vlad. May the older halfa suffer. “Later on in the night is when the big inventions will be properly introduced and tested, if it is deemed safe to do so. Unfortunately for us, the portal was deemed safe as no one truly believes it will function… not even the scientist that built it.”

“Unbelievable.” Danny huffed. Why would they want to test their portal with so many people present? Don’t they understand how dangerous it was?

“Absolutely.” Vlad nodded, agreeing with him for the second time that day. Oh man, something was wrong. They shouldn’t be agreeing with each other so much, this was blasphemy! “The third day will be much like the second, so you’ll be free then too. At night will be the gala dinner, where awards will be presented. I beg of you to not forget your table manners then.” Vlad gave Danny’s fingers a pointed look.

“I’ll behave.” Danny rolled his eyes. “Your rich man cred will be safe with me, I promise.” 

“Right…” The two of them suddenly delved into silence, just enjoying the food in front of them and each other’s silent company. Danny couldn’t help but think how odd this all felt. He would have never imagined he’d willingly go to a burger joint with Vlad in a strange city miles away from home. It was also pretty weird how they hadn’t tried to murder each other yet. He couldn’t help but think of the first time he had met Vlad… sure, he wasn’t super trusting, but he actually almost liked the guy. 

That was until he started obsessing over his mom. 

He wondered what would have happened if Vlad hadn’t been so vengeful, would they eat lunch at McDonalds together more frequently? Would they have been ghost allies instead of enemies? Maybe Vlad would’ve actually been more of a family figure like he had pretended to be than the nuisance he was now. He wondered if Vlad thought the same thing.

“Does it have to be my mom?” Danny suddenly asked, filling in the silence that had overtaken them. Vlad raised a brow, waiting for Danny to elaborate. “I mean… No offense, but I don’t think you’ll get anywhere with her. Even if something happened to my dad, I don’t think she’d ever get married again or look for someone else.”

“What makes you so sure, Daniel?” Vlad was glaring at him now, but remained civil. Danny took that as a positive sign. 

“She’s really family oriented, but she’s also a free spirit. She loves my dad and she loves our family, but I think the moment she’s left alone she’d pack her bags and go wherever the wind takes her.” Vlad had to begrudgingly admit that was a valid assessment of what would happen. Her spirit was one of the things Vlad had loved about Maddie, after all. “Not to mention, she’s said no to you every time you’ve tried to make an advance. I don’t think that’ll ever change.”

“Perhaps one day she’ll say yes.” Danny sighed at his denial, but he wasn’t hostile yet so he’d keep trying.

“Okay. Let’s pretend that might happen one day. Could you handle it?” 

“Handle what?” Vlad raised a brow.

“The fact that she hates ghosts. If Plasmius kills my dad or made him leave, she’d hate you even more.” Danny asked, genuinely curious. “Do you honestly think you could handle keeping your ghost half to yourself, maybe even resigning it entirely?”

“If it’s for her then-”

“Because I couldn’t.” Danny interrupted. “I thought I loved Val, that I’d end up with her. I loved her up until the moment I found out she wanted to kill a part of me. Phantom is and always will be a part of who I am. Even if for some reason I go back to being fully human, I couldn’t handle her hating that part of me. Could you?”

Vlad turned his head to look at the table in front of him, thinking over Danny’s words. He did have a point. Could Vlad simply deny the existence of a part of him for someone else? “I love my mom, but I’m more afraid of her finding out I’m Phantom than I am dad.” Danny admitted softly after another period of silence. Vlad snapped his head to look at the boy, not expecting that revelation. “I know she loves me as Danny, but she has serious beef against Phantom. She thinks he’s the reason so many ghosts are coming out nowadays. Dad just likes catching ghosts.” 

Well, if Danny was willing to open up then Vlad would be amenable to do the same. “I’ve loved your mother since college, you know this. When Jack,” Danny ignored how Vlad spat his name out with disgust, “gave me ecto-acne, I thought all hope was lost. I believed my chances with her were gone and that Jack took everything away from me. Because of it, I’m all alone while Jack has everything I’ve ever wanted.” 

That… was not what Danny was expecting from this conversation. Well, whatever, just gotta roll with the punches. “Everything you’ve wanted?” Danny asked tentatively.

“A beautiful and intelligent wife, a family that loves him and an overall happy life.” Oh shit, this ran deep. Okay, Danny could work with this.

“Which brings me to my first question… does it have to be my mom? Do you love her, really? Or is it just an obsession?” Danny could tell Vlad was taking offense to what he said, so he quickly backtracked. “Because it wasn’t Val and it also wasn’t Sam. They’re both my friends that I love and care for deeply, but it wasn’t them. Don’t you think you deserve someone who will love you for all of you?”

Vlad glared at him, but he didn’t outright deny anything Danny said so the boy only shrugged and took another bite of his burger. Talking would only get him so far.

\--*--

The rest of the day was spent mostly just recharging after the flight. Man, airports were stressful. Between going through security, getting to the right gate, waiting to board the plane and then having to find your luggage, it was just too much. Danny was half afraid Vlad put something illegal in his person to get him to go to jail, but that was his paranoia speaking. The entire ordeal went off without a hitch, as can be seen by their being in Gotham, but it was still exhausting. Danny decided to always avoid riding a plane if he could.

Eventually, the two of them went to their respective rooms and promptly passed out. Danny couldn’t help but wonder how odd it felt not to have fought a single ghost all day. He wondered how everyone in Amity Park was doing, and only felt relief when Tucker told him everything was fine. It also helped that Sam sent a text yelling at him to just relax for once and let them handle it; Valarie was also pretty much into the whole ‘protect Amity Park in his stead’ movement so that was another big relief. 

The next day was spent mentally preparing himself for the Ice Breaker Gala. Vlad kindly offered to teach him how not to be an annoying little shit, not that Vlad directly called him that, so that he wouldn’t make a fool of himself in front of a bunch of rich people. Danny was somehow grateful for that, but he would never admit it out loud. Vlad didn’t need a boost to his already highly inflated ego. 

Night came far too quickly and soon the two of them found themselves exiting the rental car and walking up to a really pretty building. It was a gothic-style architecture that Danny was pretty sure Sam would fawn over and Tucker would hate. His sister might enjoy it, liking all things ancient and historical. Gothic architecture was almost always ancient and historical.

He noticed a small group of people in the entrance of the building, greeting a few guests. Danny immediately recognized the tallest figure as one Bruce Wayne. The four other figures must be his sons, whose names Danny could not and probably wouldn’t ever remember.

Vlad smiled politely at Bruce Wayne and his four sons as he made his way towards the entrance of the Gala. Danny couldn’t help but think that even his polite smiles almost looked murderous. “Hello Mr. Wayne.” He greeted politely. Danny chose to stay quiet behind him, following Vlad’s lead. He was way out of his element here. Honestly, it almost reminded him of that one time he went over to Dash’s dumb party.

“Hello Mr. Masters, I’m glad you could make it.” Bruce Wayne offered a pleasant enough smile. “These are my sons: Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian.” Each of the boys greeted him with a hi or hello. Danny couldn’t help but notice how plastered the smiles looked on them and he wondered if they had to greet every guest that came in. Man, being rich wasn’t easy. Then again, the younger Wayne wasn’t even smiling. A real rebel. Sam would like him.

“A pleasure to meet you boys.” Vlad’s smile turned more genuine and he looked at Danny. “This is my son, Daniel.”

“Honorary.” Danny emphasized, raising a challenging brow at Vlad. He was surprised when Vlad’s smile simply widened. Then he realized the implications of what he said. Shit. He accepted being Vlad’s honorary son. Damn it, he was played. He gave Vlad a quick glare before turning towards the Waynes with his own plastered smile. God he wanted to be anywhere but here right now. “Nice to meet you.” He offered, thanking his lucky stars that he was a social being.

“I hope you enjoy your evening.” Bruce Wayne told them before they politely said their goodbyes and entered the gala. Danny really hoped Vlad wouldn’t ditch him in this gala for the rest of the night. He did not want to mingle with other rich snobs. Maybe he should have asked to bring Sam along, she would definitely have made this place more entertaining to say the least. Then again, Sam hated Vlad almost more than he did. Bad recipe.

“I don’t see the portal, so what’s the plan now?” Danny asked once they were far away from anyone who could eavesdrop their conversation.

“We mingle.” Vlad hissed, almost as unwilling to interact with everyone around him as Danny was. “Maybe someone might know where it could be hidden. We have until tomorrow to find it and shut it down.” Vlad stopped talking and smiled as a waiter passed by him with a tray of filled wine glasses. He gingerly picked on up and took a sip. Danny rolled his eyes and looked around. “Want to separate and regroup?”

“Yes, because everyone here wants to talk to a 16 year old half-dead teenager who wants nothing more than to either bang his head against that pretty wooden wall repeatedly or go ghost and fly away.” Vlad actually laughed at his dry humor. Oh no, they were starting to get along. This felt like a crime. Tucker would disown him.

“Which is exactly why I think we should separate; at least I’m an adult.” Danny conceded, knowing adults have an easier time talking about random things when ‘kids’ weren’t around to listen in to their conversation. “Besides, one of the Waynes looked about your age.” 

“No, I am not going near him with a ten foot pole. He looked like he would murder me if given the chance. I do not want to give him that chance.” Vlad rolled his eyes at Danny’s drama. “He looks like he wants to be here even less than I do. I’m not messing with that murderous beast.” Danny said firmly. 

“Okay, I get it. Do whatever you want then.” Vlad sighed, already looking at potential people to talk to. “Just don’t get in trouble.” 

“Me? Trouble? I’d never dream of it.” Danny grinned, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I mean it, Danny. We don’t want to be kicked out.” 

“I’ll just look around the venue.” The boy shrugged. “Probably stand around the food table eating my weight in…” Danny turned his head to look at said food table. “I think those are macarons. Fancy.” He hummed. 

With parting words, the two of them split up. Vlad started talking to different people, going from group to group and striking up conversations. Danny was simply walking around the venue, looking for anything that looked like it was a ghost portal. He did at some point sneak in a macaron or two, but tended to avoid people otherwise.

About an utterly, impossibly boring hour had passed before he noticed the youngest Wayne. Not unlike any of the other Waynes Danny saw, he was surrounded by people; the difference between him and his family was simple: he looked utterly miserable. He also looked like he really wanted to throw the girls hanging onto him off a bridge. Danny couldn’t help but think of Jazz and how uncomfortable she felt around Dash at times. 

Well, he just couldn’t ignore someone in need… even if that someone scared the shit out of him and gave him, a half-ghost, the creeps. He tried remembering the introductions they gave at the beginning of the party and was drawing at a blank. Thank science for Google and smartphones. He quickly looked up the basic information on the Wayne family and figured out the youngest one’s name: Damian. Right. Now to actually save him.

Taking a deep breath, he walked towards the black-haired, green-eyed boy surrounded by unpleasant company. He thanked all the times he had to lie about where he was going or why he suddenly disappeared. Pretending he knew someone who’d probably murder him in his sleep was easy… yeah, okay he’d leave the kid alone the moment he was free from the girls. 

“Oh hey Damian! I’ve been looking all over for you!” He made a wide gesture with his arms, as if he were going for a hug, before letting his arms drop and look at the girls in front of him with a grimace. “Hey ladies, mind if I borrow Damian for a bit?” He then gave them all a charming smile, easily ignoring Damian’s murderous glare. “Won’t take long, promise.” The girls sighed before stepping aside to let Damian through, almost as if having expected this to happen at some point or another. Curious. “Shall we?” He asked the boy, really getting tired of that glare. When the boy said nothing, he simply turned to leave. 

“What do you want?” Damian hissed the moment the girls were out of ear shot. Danny would bet his bottom dollar Damian was mentally punching him. Dash did say Danny had that effect on people, something about being an insufferable twerp. Then again, Dash was a dick and therefore his opinions were invalid.

“Personally, I want a large cup of coffee and a will to live.” Danny chirped with a bright smile. He nearly cackled when Damian’s frown turned into a scandalized glare. “But I figured I should be the only one actually suffering in this event. It looked like you were uncomfortable there, so consider me your ‘get the hell out of dodge’ ticket.” He looked around for something to do, reminding himself that this was an inappropriate time to try and prank Vlad and he definitely shouldn’t go invisible and attack people with floating macarons. He was so bored. 

“What’s in it for you?” Damian raised a brow. Danny was half tempted to flirt, the kid was really cute once you got past the constant angry glare, but he quickly realized he valued his life so he chose not to.

“I got to waste about… I think that was forty five seconds? I’m impossibly bored, you see.” He shrugged, eyes landing on the butler with the wine. He could totally steal a glass, maybe even two. Would he get drunk off that? He was bored enough to try and find out. Vlad would kill him. Or maybe he’d laugh. It was fifty fifty, really. “Anyways, see ya.” He took a step towards the direction of the butler.

“You do realize that the moment we stop talking those girls will flock over to me again, rendering your efforts pointless.” Damian’s voice distracted him from his current mission. Danny sighed, looking longingly at his ticket to mischief before turning back to Damian. “If you’re going to act like my savior, you might as well follow through.”

“Can’t you just slip out?” This venue was Wayne property, after all. Surely Damian could simply go somewhere restricted and hide.

“Father would hunt me down and I would not hear the end of it.” Yeah okay, that made sense. Well, at least Damian’s glare looked a little less lethal now. “Your name, what did you say it was? Dorian?” Yikes, not even close. Then again he didn’t even remember Damian’s name so he couldn’t really complain.

“Danny.” The boy deadpanned. Damian simply raised a brow. “So, I’m guessing you want me to keep you company a little while longer?”

“You are tolerable.” Damian said as he nodded, as if that explained everything and wasn’t rude as hell. Instead of being offended, though, Danny just laughed. 

“Tolerable?” He breathed out. “Oh my God. That’s too good. A definite upgrade from insufferable twerp. I’ll take it.” Damian was looking more and more confused as Danny continued to talk. Sam would have a field day with this Wayne.

“Are you alright?” Damian probably felt compelled to ask that. Danny was probably freaking him out; poor kid.

“Oh yeah I’m fine, I just have a shit sense of humor. It’s a coping mechanism at this point.” He said flippantly. When Damian simply hummed thoughtfully, Danny realized that he would definitely have to be the one stringing the conversation along. “So what do you usually do during these things? Aside from being manhandled by a bunch of girls, that is.” Danny gave the other boy a teasing smile and received a huff for his efforts. Well, the dude did ask for his company and his company usually entailed teasing, sarcasm and a bunch of bad jokes. It was a package deal.

“I tend to remind myself that mass murder is frowned upon and would sully my suit.” He said so seriously that Danny was inclined to believe him. Danny did mention several times that Damian looked absolutely murderous, but he didn’t actually think he was. Then again, maybe Damian had an equally shit sense of humor. Danny grinned either way.

“That is a nice suit.” Danny pretended to give the suit an analytical study, tapping his finger on his chin and nodding his head as if he figured out all of the world’s problems. “Very fancy and black. Love the green tie, matches your eyes.” He could have sworn he saw Damian’s lips twitch up for a second there. Nice. Maybe Tinman has a heart after all!

“That was the intended effect.” Danny gasped at this reveal.

“No, for real?” He put a hand over his mouth in mock surprise. Damian just stared at him, unamused with his antics. Eventually, Danny cracked and started laughing again. “Okay, that’s it. We’re friends now.” If he was being honest, he really didn’t expect to suddenly declare friendship with this boy. He still kinda freaked him out a little with how angry he looked, but the kid looked a lot more amiable now compared to a couple of minutes ago. Maybe he just had trouble making friends and being social. 

“And what makes you think I want to be friends with you?” Ouch. That sounded a little harsh, but Danny’s had worse. At least he wasn’t calling him ‘Fen-turd’ and shoving him against a locker. Danny could easily ignore the jab.

“I mean, have you seen me?” Danny grinned, trying to sound as cocky as he could before he deadpanned. “I’m an absolute disaster of a human that can barely function well enough as is. Being friends with me is like having a free ticket to whatever God-awful tomfuckery is going to happen next, because you can bet your ass I’m going to be in the center of it all one way or another.” 

Damian’s lips twitched again, and Danny absolutely counted that as a win. “You don’t actually have to be friends with me,” he said sobering up, “but you seem pretty chill. I’m also 90% sure you and Sam would get along like wildfire and who am I to stop a potentially beautiful or violent friendship from forming.” Damian frowned, probably not expecting that answer.

“Sam?” He settled for asking that instead of addressing anything else. Fair play.

“She’s my best friend, pretty much a pseudo sister at this point. She will murder you if you hurt an animal and keeps trying to get me to go vegan; or at least vegetarian. She’s also got a killer glare, maybe one that could even rival yours.” Danny winked, smiling again. Damian simply raised a brow.

“Is that why you’re not that affected by my glares?” Wait, was Damian actually miffed by that? Oh, Danny was going to have a great time messing with him.

“Part of it. I mean, you have quite the glare. For a moment I thought you wanted to murder me. Ten out of ten would get the crap scared out of them.” Damian scowled at him, but Danny simply smiled wider. “But I get glared at a lot by people who, given the chance, would actually murder me. And your glare isn’t as hostile as theirs.” 

“People who would actually murder you?” Damian questioned, a hint of worry in his tone. “Are you in danger?” Well shit, Danny really needed a filter for his mind sometimes. At least he was only going to be in this conference thing for two more days and in Gotham for four more. No way this’ll come back to bite him in the ass.

“Oh, nah. They couldn’t do anything to me if they tried.” Which they had. Multiple times. He still owed Skulker a good punch in the face for the last time he tried hunting the teen. “Anyways, back to the original point,” he deflected before Damian could interrogate him, “you don’t actually have to be my friend. But, it doesn't hurt to have a conference buddy who will suffer with you because holy shit this place is boring as hell.” 

Damian simply huffed, successfully distracted. “We’ll see.” But considering he was smirking, Danny was pretty sure they were friends. Maybe.

“Demon Spawn! There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you!” Someone exclaimed, walking towards the duo. Danny recognized him as one of the other Waynes. He didn’t find any pictures of him online during his Google search, but he remembered the white tuft of hair in his bangs surrounded by his otherwise black lochs. He had blue eyes, kinda like Danny’s. Actually, every single one of the Waynes had black hair and blue eyes, with the exception of Damian’s green eyes. Danny vaguely wondered if that became a running joke. “Oh, hey, sorry. Is it okay if I talk to my baby brother alone for a bit? I promise I won’t take long.” Huh. Hadn’t he heard that one before?

“Well, I guess I didn’t have to play savior after all.” Danny chuckled softly and gave Damian a smile. “I suppose I’ll leave you two alone then. It was nice being almost-friends-maybe-conference-buddies with you.” He ignored how the older Wayne stared at him with confusion and started looking for that wine butler again. He was still down to see if alcohol would affect him badly with his half-dead status and ghost-healing in play.

“Oh trust me, your timing was rather perfect. I was afraid that any longer and I’d start losing brain cells… or at least a nice suit.” Danny laughed at the small inside joke. “Todd, if it’s quite alright, I think I’d rather continue my conversation with Danny.” Oh. Damian was actually enjoying his company? Danny blinked, a bit surprised by that.

“First name basis?” The Todd guy asked. Huh, Danny didn’t remember Bruce introducing any of his kids as Todd… maybe that was a nickname?

“Seeing as how I am unaware of his last name, it will have to do.” Danny noticed Damian stiffen. So they had a strange relationship. He’d definitely have to remember to avoid that topic of discussion.

“Fenton.” Danny provided easily, a bit distracted by his own thoughts. “If you must know.” He added cheekily as an afterthought. He then noticed Todd squint at the two of them.

“I don’t know… this is kind of suspicious Damian. It almost looks like you’ve made a friend.” By the end of his accusation, Todd was grinning madly.

“Excuse you, but we’re best friends.” Danny put a hand against his chest in mock offense. 

“I didn’t realize we were even friends.” Damian deadpanned, but Danny could see there was some mirth in his eyes; it was just deeply hidden by his scowl.

“Of course we are! Don’t you remember our wonderful time together?” 

“What happened to Jon? I thought he was your best friend.” Wait, Todd actually believed him on his ‘best friend’ joke? Danny looked at Todd’s confused expression and, yeah, he believed it.

“Jon? Damian, you’re best-friend-cheating on me?” Danny gasped, wiping a non-existent tear. “How could you?” Damian sighed and Todd grinned.

“Okay, you’re fucking with me.” It would seem that Todd finally caught on.

“Oh yeah. Big time.” Danny answered easily, dropping his act and giving the older Wayne a smirk.

“First of all, rude.” Todd huffed out causing the ghost teen to snicker. “Second of all, hi I’m Jason. How the hell did Demon Spawn not scare you off?” 

“Demon Spawn?” Danny raised a brow. He looked over at Damian to see if the nickname bothered him at all, knowing how annoying it can be when others call you random shit. Dash really opened his eyes on that whole subject with his plethora of shitty nicknames, most of which weren’t even that creative. It looked like Damian wasn’t that affected by it, so Danny wouldn’t make a big deal of it. “Is it ‘cause of his devilish charms?” 

Danny was absolutely smug when he got both Waynes to splutter. “Okay, like what the fuck?” Todd asked and Danny had to bite back a laugh. Meanwhile, Damian was just staring at him. He didn’t even have a glare on him. It was beautiful.

“Just askin’.” He said innocently. He then noticed Vlad looking around the crowd and when their eyes locked Danny just sighed. “Well, that’s my cue to go.” He briefly turned to the two Waynes. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you.” He said, giving them both an honest smile.

“Will you be at the conference expo tomorrow?” Damian asked with a frown. Danny blinked, and his smile grew wider.

“Yep. I’ve been invited to suffer through all three days while Vlad mingles with his rich buddies.” Damian nodded, satisfied by the answer. “I guess I’ll see you there.” 

“Yes, I will be in need of your savior services once more.” Danny couldn’t help but laugh.

“I got you.” He looked to Vlad who had a brow raised and he grimaced. “Okay yeah, gotta go. See you tomorrow.” With that he made his way towards Vlad, barely noticing Jason and Damian saying their own goodbyes. He definitely didn’t notice Jason’s concerningly wide grin when he turned to look at Damian.

Danny reached Vlad relatively quickly, both relieved and disappointed that they were leaving. Vlad did look tired from socializing though. Danny couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised, the guy was pretty much a recluse. 

“I thought you said you wouldn’t go near him with a ten food pole?” Was he… Was Vlad Masters teasing him? Danny Fenton? Without malice? Has the world gone mad? 

“Technically, I didn’t.” Danny grinned, ignoring his inner turmoil and choosing to joke along. It was his coping mechanism, after all. “I went near him with a ten inch tie. Seriously, this thing is going to choke me.” The boy grumbled as they made their way to leave the gala.

“That’s a perfectly fine tie.” Vlad rolled his eyes. When they found and entered Vlad’s rented car, the older ghost looked at the younger one. “Did you find anything out?” He asked.

“No.” Danny mentally cursed himself for forgetting his prime objective. Well, everyone knew he had the attention span of a three year old on crack. “Did you?” 

“No.” Vlad sighed. “Hopefully, we can find it tomorrow before it’s turned on.” Somehow, Vlad didn’t sound entirely hopeful about that. Danny sighed, not looking forward to the fight that was no doubt going to happen.


	2. Not Another One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But wait... there's more!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had too much fun writing this, so this story is probably going to continue.
> 
> Thank you guys so much for all of your support! You guys are absolutely fantastic!!  
> Special thanks to @Hyrulehalfbreed for beta reading and also helping out with Vlad's dialogue! Much appreciated<3

“What are you doing?” Vlad asked with a raised brow as he adjusted his tie. He noticed Danny was staring intensely at the screen on his phone with a bag of make-up to the side. He had been wondering how the teen kept his one scar hidden. It was a pity the mark left behind by the GIW wasn’t affected by a ghost’s natural healing factor, and Vlad could only imagine how much distaste Danny held for it. If he had been a second later, Vlad was sure Danny would have suffered a fate worse than he did. The memory alone made the older man sneer in distaste.

“Research.” The boy answered, tapping away at the keyboard, brows furrowing deeply. 

“On what?” Surely he wasn’t researching anything about the ghost portal? Vlad had already searched anything he could find in the web, both through legal and illegal means, and had told Danny as much. Well, then again the teen clearly didn’t trust him. The older man held back a disappointed sigh. 

“Coffee shops. Looking for the one that gives the most shots while also still making it taste decent enough.” Oh. That caught Vlad off guard. 

“I assume you’ll be going to said coffee shop?” Vlad oddly enough felt compelled to continue the conversation. He was starting to get used to the boy’s company without feeling the urge to sabotage him. Perhaps there was still hope in fostering some sort of healthy relationship with the boy. 

“Yep. I don’t function well without coffee.” Danny admitted. “A lot of ghosts enjoy appearing at two am on school nights. I’m pretty sure I’m in a constant state of sleep deprivation at this point.” Perhaps it was the lack of coffee that made the boy so mellow right now. Vlad doubted they’d be having a decent conversation otherwise. 

“Would you be willing to grab me a cup as well?” He wondered, already dreading the day ahead of him. “We’re given a small lunch break around two, too small to find a decent coffee shop I’m afraid.” 

Danny frowned and finally looked up from his phone. Vlad expected the boy to harshly say no, but after a moment he simply sighed and muttered: “well shit, we’re bonding over coffee.” With a louder and clearer voice he added. “Okay, how do you like your coffee?” The boy felt he owed Vlad at least that much, after all the man did pay for the entire trip to Gotham and his fancy suits -even if they felt tight and awkward and Danny hated it.

“Give me two shots and three packs of sugar.” Vlad was surprised Danny actually agreed to this. “Do you need me to give you the address of the conference?” 

“Yeah, that would be great. Just text it to me.” He went back to looking at his phone and Vlad could only blink at him. He felt a small smile reach his lips as he combed back his hair. Perhaps today wouldn’t be such a dreadful day after all. 

—*—

It took about twenty minutes for Danny to reach the coffee shop he had his eyes on. He spent at least thirty minutes researching coffee shops, so his hopes were uncharacteristically high. Vlad had left for the conference a while ago with a request for coffee at two, but Danny was free otherwise. 

He sighed, not wanting to be Vlad’s personal coffee delivery boy but he knew how shitty a day could be without the life essence. He was trying to play nice, especially since Vlad seemed to be doing the same. Who knows? Maybe after all of this is done and over with Vlad will stop harassing his family. 

Anyways, coffee. 

He entered the shop already with his intended beverage in mind. He may or may not have spent two or three minutes weighing his options before picking the perfect beverage: the aptly named Death Wish Coffee. Tucker always did that their little trio of friends had some sort of death wish after Danny turned into a halfa, not to mention this was the strongest drink they had; there was no way he wasn’t getting this. He was looking forward to it. He was hoping he could barter for an extra shot, but he’d be content with whatever he got as long as it was strong. 

“Next.” The barista motioned for him to walk to the cash register with a smile. “What can I get for you?” He seemed tired, probably having just dealt with morning rush hour, but still cheerful. Danny appreciated it, knowing how hard a barista’s job could get. 

“Hi, I was wondering if I could get a Death Wish with as many shots as you can legally put in it.” Danny said with an eager (and bone tired) smile. The barista’s eyes widened, but he nodded easily enough. 

“Oh dear, not another one.” He muttered under his breath. If it wasn’t for Danny’s enhanced senses he probably wouldn’t have heard it. He wondered what the barista meant by that, but was thankful he wasn’t questioned on his desired drink. If anything, it seemed like he would be getting really, really strong coffee. “What’s your name sir?”

“Danny.” He replied easily enough. 

“Anything else you’d like to add to your order?” The barista asked and Danny eyed the pastries on display. He realized he hadn’t eaten anything yet, and coffee on an empty stomach wasn’t always a good choice. 

“Uh, how about a slice of lemon cake?” 

“That’ll be $5.99, sir.” The halfa paid the amount due plus a decent tip (since he was using Vlad’s money and the guy looked extremely uncomfortable by his request of copious amounts of caffeine) and went to find an empty seat to wait for his coffee. He sat down on a window seat, trying really hard not to close his eyes and fall back asleep. It was only 9am, but he really wasn’t a morning person. He woke up at 7:40 when Vlad started getting ready for his conference. The older man didn’t even make much noise, really, but Danny was a light sleeper after years of having to fight off ghosts at any hour of the day or night. He had trouble falling back asleep, so he simply decided to get ready for his day. At least he had coffee. 

The moment his name was called and he grabbed his coffee, he cradled it against his chest protectively and almost forgot to grab his slice of lemon cake. He was there mostly for the coffee, really. Danny joyfully took his first sip, closing his eyes to fully savor the taste. 

He hummed in satisfaction as the almost scalding hot liquid made it down his throat. It was strong and bitter, a cup of coffee brewed to perfection. He nearly cried tears of joy, maybe with a cup like this he’ll finally be able to stay awake and aware enough during the day. He needed to figure out how to make a coffee like this one for when he went back home. 

He was so lost in savoring his coffee that he almost didn’t notice a man walk up to him and call his name. “Are you Danny Fenton?” The man asked. Danny looked up from his coffee to see if this was someone he recognized. He wasn’t. Maybe? He looks somewhat familiar, but Danny couldn’t quite place a name to the face. 

Maybe Vlad sent someone to spy on him while he was in the conference, just to make sure he didn’t get himself into too much trouble? That didn’t quite sound like Vlad though, plus this guy made a terrible spy if he was revealing himself. If Vlad didn’t send him, then who did? Did anyone even send him? What if he just was a stalker? But then Danny was a nobody, who would want to stalk him? 

The guy had blue eyes and black hair, much like his own. Maybe he was a recruiter for the blue eyes black hair club… okay, that theory didn’t even make sense. Did he ask someone out and then forgot about it? Was he maybe a long lost brother? What if he was a clone? Well, he was much more attractive than Danny, so he couldn’t be a clone. Not to mention, that aside from Vlad, who would want to make a clone of him? All he had going for him was his ghost powers. Really, if you’re going to clone someone then go for someone rich or famous. 

If Danny could clone someone, it would definitely be Patrick Stewert. Or maybe Robert Downey Jr.; the guy was fantastic. Then again, how fun would it be to literally clone the president? Or maybe the queen of England. Oh the shenanigans he would pull!

A cough startled him from his train of thought and Danny suddenly realized he zoned out on this poor guy. “Uh, yeah. That’s me. Sorry, I’ve yet to drink my coffee.” He apologized, only to realize he just gave his name to a total stranger who might have been stalking him; or might have been his clone, he wasn’t ruling that theory out just yet. Well, either way, not much he could do about it now. “Do I know you?” He asked, too tired to deal with this shit. The guy frowned immediately in surprise so, yes, Danny probably did know him and was just being rude. Oops. “My brain is kinda like Internet Explorer before the first cup.” He explained a bit sheepishly and the guy in front of him nodded in understanding. 

“I’m Tim Drake, we met yesterday at the gala. You mostly talked to my younger brother, Damian.” Oh… OH! Right! He’s one of the brothers! That explained almost everything except…

“Why are you talking to me?” The moment his brain registered the fact that he said that out loud he groaned and let his head drop and thump on the table next to his coffee. “Sorry, that was rude as hell. What I meant was that I’m not really memorable and I’m surprised one of the hosts wanted to talk to me.” When he finally lifted his head he noticed Tim was smiling at him. 

“I get it, don’t worry. Honestly I’d be surprised too if I were in your shoes.” An angel. This man is an angel. “I heard all about you from Jason, and then the barista called out ‘one Death Wish with as many shots as legally possible for Danny,’ which is the same drink I always get. I was curious to see if you were the same Danny as yesterday.” 

Yeah that made sense. Danny nodded and smiled. “A fellow insomniac! Wanna join me in my awakening?” He asked, pointing to the empty seat across the table. Tim smiled brightly at him and nodded with his cup in hand and dark bags under his eyes that rivaled Danny’s. 

“Yeah, that would be nice.” He easily sat down with a surprising amount of grace. “I was actually hoping I could talk to you later tonight.” Tim chuckled lightly as Danny took a sip of his heavenly coffee. 

“Why’s that?” He wondered out loud, a bit baffled. 

“You made friends with Demon Spawn.” Tim shrugged. “My baby brother isn’t the most sociable and I wanted to know what you were like.” 

Danny frowned, not entirely sure what he meant by that. “Like you’re impressed with me or like I’m going to get the friendship version of a shovel talk?” Tim blinked at him only to start chuckling. 

“I think a bit of both.” He answered before taking a sip of his own coffee. 

“Fair enough.” Danny snorted. “If it makes you feel better, I’m heading back home to Amity Park after the conference is over and probably go back to my oddity of a life and never be heard from again.” Tim raised his brow. 

“What makes you say that?” 

“Vlad already bought the plane tickets.” Danny held back a shit eating grin as Tim deadpanned. “Like I said, I’m not the most memorable person. Damian probably won’t even remember my name by the end of the week.” He answered honestly this time. 

“Damian uses your first name.” Tim offered as though it were proof of something. “He still calls us, his adoptive siblings, by our last names.” And there it was. 

“In his defense my last name is kind of weird. I mean, my great to the Nth power grandpa from the 1600s had the last name Fentonightingale. Who would do that to their own child? Should be considered child abuse, really. Poor John.” Danny shook his head in mock sorrow. “Poor me.” He added. 

Tim snorted in humor and shook his head. “Trust me, Damian likes you enough. I’m willing to bet my position as co-C.E.O. that he’s going to try and find a way to trick you into reaching out to him.” That sounded a bit convoluted, but thinking back to Damian’s personality it made sense. 

“I’d settle for just a cup of coffee, being C.E.O. is more of my sister Jazz’s field. Seriously, hand me your company and it would absolutely self-combust in less than a day.” Danny paused to take a sip of coffee. “But how about: winner buys loser coffee?” Tim raised a brow and Danny smiled cheekily. “Somehow, I have a feeling you’re right.”

Tim snorted and shook his head. “I’m starting to see why Damian likes you.” Danny hummed innocently. “Why did you approach him?” Oh, the shovel talk has begun. Yay. 

“He reminded me of Jazz.” Danny shrugged, telling the truth easily enough. 

“Your sister?” It was obvious he wasn’t asking if Jazz was his sister, Danny already told him who she was, but rather why he made that comparison. 

“She tutors this guy named Dash sometimes, and he’s usually nice to her but there are times he makes her uncomfortable. Kind of like how Damian looked surrounded by those girls.” A look of understanding hit Tim and he looked a bit grateful. 

“He’s not much of a social person.” Tim offered. 

“He doesn’t have to be. They made him uncomfortable and didn’t respect his boundaries. It’s a dick move in my book. No one should be forced to interact with people like that.” Tim nodded along, agreeing with what was said. 

“You seem like a good kid.” He said with a kind smile. 

“Excuse you, I’m 16. I’ve long since passed the point of being a kid. I’m currently in the ‘little shit’ phase of life.” He huffed in indignation. Tim rolled his eyes but smiled along. 

“As a 21 year old, anyone 20 and younger is to be considered a kid. Sorry kid, but them’s the rules.” Danny couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game?” He ventured. 

“Exactly.” Tim was grinning and Danny realized something important: this man was a fellow insomniac who probably, just like Danny himself, drank coffee like water and dabbled in meme culture. 

“We’re friends now too.” He decided with a nod. “Sorry.” He added with a shrug, not feeling apologetic at all. 

“Was that how you and Damian became friends?” Tim asked. 

“Yeah, but with a lot more glaring on his part.” At that, the older man laughed. 

“I would expect no less from my baby brother.” He shook his head fondly. “Hand me your phone.” 

“This sounds an awful lot like you’re mugging me.” Danny mentioned as he reached for his phone and gave it to Tim. “Can I keep my wallet?” 

Tim rolled his eyes and started typing on Danny’s phone. After a couple of seconds, Tim handed Danny his phone back with a smile. “There, now you can shoot me a message next time you want to get life water together.” Danny hummed noticing Tim had texted himself; probably so he could harass Danny if he didn’t in fact message him for a coffee hang-out. Smart man. 

“Sure.” Danny quickly typed something and hit send. Tim heard his phone ping and raised a brow at Danny before looking at it. 

_ Danny [9:17am]: I’m about to go get more life water. Want anything? _

The older boy chuckled. “I’d say yes, but I’m afraid I have to get back to work in a bit.” 

“No to-go?” Danny offered.

“Good point.”

“Two Death Wishes with a fuckton of espresso shots coming right up!” 

—*—

Talking with Tim was actually a pretty fun addition to his morning. Unfortunately, like the man said, he had to go back to work after a few more minutes and Danny was alone once again. He spent a few more minutes at the coffee shop before leaving to explore Gotham, lest he buy a third Death Wish and potentially cause a heart attack from caffeine overdose.

He decided to just aimlessly walk around Gotham with no destination in mind; always making sure to keep an eye out on his surroundings and any suspicious looking individual. He could tell most Gothamites walked with stupid amounts of caution like he did, and most tourists didn’t. Well, he hoped nothing bad would happen to those people. 

It was about ten minutes of exploring the world beyond Gotham’s coffee shop that Danny heard his name being called out again. He blinked, genuinely worried his dad decided to follow him to Gotham and look for him via name shouting; because that’s absolutely something Jack Fenton would do. With slight trepidation he followed the source of the shouting. 

To his relief it wasn’t Jack who was calling him, but rather yet another individual with black hair and blue eyes. This time, though, he had coffee and already met Tim. A quick Google search told him that this Wayne was none other than Dick Grayson; the first kid. 

What the fuck.

Actually, scratch that. 

_ Why _ the fuck. 

Danny groaned, regretting not drinking that third cup of coffee. With a sigh, he made his way towards Dick Grayson and tried to convince himself that possessing the body of a rich kid in the middle of the day and banging his head against a wall to try and unscramble his brain wasn’t a good idea. 

“Danny! Danny Fenton!” It almost sounded like the boy was looking for a long lost sibling. Well, two could play that game he supposed. 

“DICK?? Dick Grayson!?” Danny sobbed, sounding so emotional that he honestly thought he deserved an Oscar; but that was just his own unbiased opinion. “Is that really you?? It’s been so long!” 

“Danny?” Dick frowned, whipping his head around to look at the boy he had been looking for like a lost kid looking for their parents in the grocery store -grownup edition. 

“Dick!” Danny opened his arms dramatically and smiled. Dick raised his brow, but quickly caught on. Two matching Cheshire grins could be seen on their faces as they dramatically ran towards each other. 

The two crashed into a heart wrenching hug so convincing most passerbyers were smiling warmly at them and taking photos. Danny might be the unpopular nerd of Casper High, but he sure as hell loved being a drama queen whenever the opportunity arises. 

When they finally separated a few seconds later and looked at each other, Danny deadpanned. “Not that this whole thing wasn’t great or anything, but like, why?” Danny didn’t feel the need to clarify what he meant when he asked why, Damian was sharp as a whip and so was Tim so he assumed Dick and Jason weren’t much too different. Considering Dick’s grin widened, he had a feeling he wasn’t wrong. 

“Well, Timmy told me he bumped into you this morning back at work and, since he wasn’t the only one curious about his baby brother’s new friend, I came looking for you.” Danny groaned and wondered how many of Damian’s family members would harass him for befriending the boy. He hoped Dick was at least as nice to talk to as Tim. 

“So you shouted my name at a random crowd of people and just hoped I’d be passing by?” Danny raised a brow and Dick just shrugged. 

“It worked didn’t it?” He said with a kind smile. Danny wanted to glare at this man, he really did, but he knew he’d look like an angry, lanky teddy bear compared to Damian’s glares that Dick was most certainly used to. The older man also looked like a ball of sunshine, and who was Danny to bring in a storm? He settled with sighing in resignation. 

“I guess it did.” He grumbled. “So, now that you’ve found me… what are you going to do?” 

“Not much, as I only have time for a brief conversation since I still have work.” He smiled apologetically. “I just really wanted to meet you, maybe invite you over to dinner after the gala is over so you can hang out with Damian.” 

“You do realize I’m going to be at the gala tonight and tomorrow night too, right?” Danny raised a brow. Surely the guy wasn’t so impatient that he couldn’t wait a few short hours. 

“Damian wouldn’t let any of us near you.” Dick explained casually. “He thinks we’ll ruin any chance of friendship, or something like that.” Danny honestly couldn’t blame Damian for thinking like that after his encounter with these two Waynes. Sure Tim was great, but it was still a bit weird to get a shovel talk for being friends with someone your age who happened to be a bit rich and somewhat grumpy. Honestly, if Danny wasn’t already so done with life he probably would have tried to run away from the Wayne family (except Damian because the poor boy did nothing wrong except glare at anything that moves).

“You make him sound like an angry little dragon who hoards friends like treasure.” Danny noted with a droll. “I should start calling him Smaug.” He added with a hum.

“Do that, and I think he might just kill you.”

\--*--

It didn’t take long for Dick to leave; like he said, the man had a job to get back to. Their conversation was relatively light, mostly a ‘hi nice to meet you, please look after my brother’ talk. It was a bit weird, but nothing that beat his normal daily life brand of weird. Nothing got weirder than meeting the Box Ghost and Lunch Lady Ghost’s daughter, Box lunch. He shivered from the memory.

Dick did point him to some interesting places in Gotham, like Robinson Park and Gotham Museum of Antiquities. He ended up just spending the rest of his morning at the park, not really bothering to go to any museums just yet. He might do that in the afternoon or tomorrow before the last gala -if tonight’s gala didn’t go to shit, that is.

Eventually two o'clock was approaching and Danny had coffee to deliver. He quickly grabbed the coffee Vlad had asked for in a to-go cup and left towards the venue the conference was being held at. He ended up stopping at a grocery store to grab some salad, thinking Vlad might be hungry on top of needing a good cup of Joe. He just hoped grocery store packaged salad didn’t offend Vlad’s rich guy sensibilities. 

As he made his way towards the conference building he passed by a school, Gotham Academy. He couldn’t help but grin at the fact that he didn’t have to go to school for a week; one week without Lancer, Dash or any of his horrible jock lackeys. The only downside was that it was one week away from Sam and Tucker; oh, and also he had to spend it with Vlad… but regardless, the thought of not having to go to his awful high school put a spring on his step. 

\--*--

There was an absolute horrid crick in Vlad’s neck that he tried to rub out with one hand as he descended the marble stairs that led to the small park that surrounded the grandiose hall. The temperature was crisp in Gotham as it was Fall. Still he felt that it was wanting, The air was polluted by cars, buses, motorcycles, and trucks powered their way through a city that was far too noisy. So different was it from Amity Park and from his quiet castle in Wisconsin. 

Perhaps he would visit his old haunt once this nuisance of a potential portal was dealt with. The Dairy King should have kept things in order in his absence, it was the agreement they had come to in exchange for Vlad not tossing the cheese loving ghost back into the zone. 

Blue eyes looked for a familiar head of perpetually messy dark hair, Vlad decided in that moment of spotting it perched atop the rim of a fountain that he simply must take a brush to it before the gala. Bedhead was a popular style among the commonfolk teenagers, but now Daniel was representing _ Vlad Masters _ . The Wayne boys looked well groomed and Vlad felt that it had been a silent challenge from the other billionaire when Mr. Wayne had glanced between his sons and Daniel when they had been introduced the night before. 

Bruce Wayne, Vlad felt his lips curl back into a sneer at the thought of the man. He knew an actor when he saw one, after all, the halfa had been one himself for the past several decades. All businessmen and women, they were wearing a mask to a degree, but Vlad’s had to be perfect. Could not afford it to not be, not with the consequences being the loss of his human guise. 

When Daniel’s eyes met his own, Vlad made sure to smooth the sneer from his face. The boy ran over to him rather uncouthly and proceeded to shove a cardboard cup of coffee into his hand, which he had been expecting; he hadn’t expected the plastic bag that followed soon after. Glancing inside Vlad couldn’t help but marvel, “You picked up lunch for me?” 

The dressing Daniel had chosen was not Vlad’s preferred, but it would do. Most likely Daniel grabbed the little packets with the fanciest name. Sitting down on the rim of the fountain, Vlad began to eat, he was hungry, “I prefer the poor man’s ranch, but thank you. I,” he was being truthful, “appreciate it, little badger.”

\--*--

Danny raised a brow, but chose to say nothing at the nickname. “No problem,” he said instead, “I figured you would be hungry.” Before Vlad could say anything Danny continued in Esperanto, the long lost language of the dead. “Any leads?” He asked.

Vlad sighed, feeling his previous annoyance return with a vengeance as he stabbed at the salad with his fork. “Unfortunately not. So far, none of the presentations have had a hint about the portal. Honestly, most of these so-called ‘inventors’ are nothing but shams. I could... well, even  _ Jack _ could invent circles around these hacks.” 

The younger ghost couldn’t help the smirk on his lips, he figured that it must have been painful to Vlad to give Jack even an ounce of recognition so the scientists presenting in the conference must’ve really been that bad. “I almost feel bad that you have to suffer through these presentations. Almost.” And there he was, teasing Vlad again like they hadn’t tried to kill each other at least thirteen times this month alone. Was the Gotham coffee getting to him? Surely that’s the only possible reason for the two of them to get along this well.

“Ah yes, I suppose you know best that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Don’t you?” Vlad rolled his eyes, half serious, this ‘working for the good of all’ was a royal pain in his ass… but mostly his neck from having to crane it back to watch the screens for hours on end and his ears from being drilled by half intelligent rambling. 

“Moving on, if I still haven’t found a clue to the location of the portal before the gala,” he dreaded leaving it to a teenager that had the subtlety of an agitated elephant walking on bubble wrap and surrounded by incredibly expensive and fragile glassware but needs must, “ _ you  _ will have to be the one to search the more restricted displays before they are set to be shown. The group is expected to make their way together from one invention to the next tonight. My absence would be too noticeable.” 

“Right.” Danny felt a bit agitated by that tidbit of information. He sort of knew how to be stealthy courtesy of being half ghost, but he doubted he’d be able to actually transform into his ghost form considering how the last gala was really tight in security and cameras. It made far more sense for him, as Danny Fenton, to simply be curious about the displays rather than him, Danny Fenton, using some sort of bullshit magic to transform into a ghost in an unoccupied corner. “If I go to Gotham jail, you’re bailing me out.” It was sad how little confidence he had in himself but, well, he knew himself quite well.

“Oh must I? I heard that prison is where one can group in discipline and character,” Vlad complained, his smirk remaining despite the fact that the younger had jabbed his pointy elbow into his side. It almost made him drop the salad. Then again, Vlad had heard that Phantom had once found himself in Walker’s floating jail. It seemed to have done little to rein the boy in either his attitude or his annoying heroic tendencies. 

“Hey, out of the two of us, we know who’s broken the most laws.” Danny snipped back, fighting a little grin. 

Yes, the younger halfa knew of Vlad’s shady business practices and there was how he had come about his initial fortune. A series of bank robberies using his ghostly powers when Vlad was left with nothing once he was released from the hospital. A stalemate as always between them. A scowl crossed Vlad’s face and his hopes were rather low that Danny would ever see him as more than just a billion dollar villain; he was both worth more and more powerful than some 2 cent one.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Danny spoke after a moment of watching Vlad stab a piece of lettuce with his fork rather violently, “but why did you decide to come to Gotham? I mean, I thought you didn’t care about other people enough to stop a third portal from opening up.”   
  
“I don’t.” Vlad replied easily enough, eyes not leaving the salad in front of him. “I simply detest the idea of a third party having access to a realm that knows too many secrets about myself.” ‘And you’ went unsaid, but his time-worn blue eyes betrayed him as they met briefly with Danny’s. 

The two sat in amiable silence as Vlad finished the last of his salad. Soon enough a crowd of people could be seen entering the venue the conference was being held in. Vlad checked his watch, realizing that it was time to return to the long, boring nonsensical lectures. “As much as I’d hate to cut this short, I’m afraid I must take my leave.” He tossed his finished salad into the rubbish bin and turned sharply to face Danny, speaking in English once more. “The gala begins at 8. You best be at the hotel by 5:30 to begin getting ready.” 

Danny groaned. “Looking forward to it.” He muttered sarcastically, making it quite clear to the both of them that he was, in fact, really not looking forward to it. Vlad rolled his eyes, easily ignoring the teen’s dramatics after having to deal with them for years now. With a simple farewell, Vlad turned to join the other conference goers in returning to the venue.

\--*--

The young halfa sighed, watching as Vlad made his way back towards the conference. Well, his little two pm coffee mission was done and he was officially free until the gala later tonight. He turned around to go back to mindlessly exploring Gotham and avoid bumping into any other Waynes. When he turned, he was immediately confronted with the familiar figure of one Damian Wayne. 

So much for avoiding the Waynes… at least he already knew and liked this one.

He held down the urge to flinch at the surprise, refusing to show anyone any weaknesses he might have. His insecurities have been taken advantage of one too many times for him to ever be that carefree. 

He also should have noticed someone sneaking up on him. Two years of fighting ghosts taught him to always be aware; ghosts could be some of the most silent things out there with the whole intangibility + flight + invisibility shindig. His natural ghost sensor could only help so much and he, unfortunately, didn’t have a human sensor to tell him when someone was sneaking by him; so by now he was used to listening to his environment for silent footsteps, quiet breathing, or any hushed noises. Damian, however, was far more silent than what Danny was used to. It was a bit unnerving but, then again, Damian himself was a bit unnerving in general so it somehow fits. 

“Don’t you have school?” Damian asked with a glare. Damian was right in front of him, meaning he was behind him for at least some time. Since Vlad didn’t comment on him, it must’ve been after Vlad turned to leave… well, at least he didn’t hear what the two of them said. 

“I’m on excused absences.” Danny said casually and smiled as brightly as he could, though he doubted it looked genuine. He was frazzled by the jump scare, sue him. Damian simply glared harder. 

“Your father is allowing you to skip a week of school in order to be bored to death at a gala?” The boy had a point. But…

“My dad doesn’t really care.” He shrugged. “Signed the slip without even reading it. I think my sister was the only one miffed that I’d be skipping school. I had to finish the entire week’s worth of homework and turn it in to appease her.” Damian seemed even more annoyed by his answer. Danny wondered if that’s just how the boy showed he cared. 

With a sigh, Damian looked between him and where Vlad had been. “What have you been doing today?” The way he said that sounded accusatory but Danny shrugged it off, he’s pretty used to being accused of things he didn’t do. Nothing beats being called a menace to Amity Park right after saving it for the hundredth time.

“Aimlessly walking through Gotham much like I do my own pointless life.” Danny smiled cheerfully as he answered. "Wanna join me?" 

“Pointless life?” Damian repeated in a horrified whisper. Danny’s smile turned into a Cheshire grin. 

“Well, yeah! My life is pretty rounded up, y’know? A near perfect 360 degree circle, no pointy edge in sight. I’m no square, after all.” Damian looked like he was debating between homicide or suicide and it was histerical. The boy took a deep breath before returning to his usual resting glare face. 

"Why are you like this?" Danny's grin just widened. He was going to answer with something cheeky or perhaps a deflection before he saw yet another figure with black hair and blue eyes approaching them. This one didn't look like any of the Waynes he had met yesterday, but after today he was weary. Why were there so many people with blue eyes and black hair approaching him today?

"Do you know that guy?" He asked, eyeing the stranger wearily. 

"Unfortunately." Damian huffed, but Danny got the sense that the boy wasn't actually annoyed. When the taller boy (who looked at him with concern oddly enough) approached, Damian turned to him. “This is Jon. Jon, this is Danny.”

“Oh! So this is the best friend you’re cheating on me with.” Danny smiled brightly at Damian’s eye roll and huff combination as well as Jon’s confused frown. “It’s nice to meet you.” He said sincerely, offering his hand. 

Jon immediately brightened up and shook his hand, he frowned slightly when their hands met but said nothing about it. The frown was probably due to how cold Danny felt; perks of being half-dead he mused. “Likewise! Damian briefly mentioned you in passing, and I’ve been curious ever since!” Why does he make that seem like a much bigger deal than it was and why did Danny feel like it was that big of a deal?

“I’ve been getting that a lot today.” He mumbled ruefully. “I promise you I’m literally the furthest you can get from interesting.” He said in a louder voice. Technically, Danny Fenton was indeed a lame guy that fit perfectly in the unpopular nerd category; it was Phantom that was the interesting one. 

“You’re far more interesting than those harlots from yesterday.” Damian grumbled out as he crossed his arms. Both Jon and Danny looked at him, Jon with wide eyes and Danny with a blank stare. Of course, once Damian’s words registered Danny couldn’t help but laugh. Loudly. He ignored how Jon’s wide eyes traveled from Damian to him. “What?” The youngest Wayne demanded with a hiss.

“It’s just that I’ve never heard someone use the word ‘harlot’. Like, my dude, please never change. You’re a gold mine of beautiful sayings.” Danny explained once his breathing evened out. “I’m still eternally happy with being called tolerable, by the way.” Jon looked at him like he had gone insane but Damian did his lip twitch thing, so Danny counted it as a win. 

“I think I’m starting to understand why you insisted we stal- follow… we follow him.” Jon cringed at the last bit, but still had a puppy-like smile on his face still. Danny raised a brow but took no offense. He’s been stalked by far greater threats than two curious teenagers. In fact, he was happy Jon said what he said if only because of the mean glare Damian sent him. It was kinda funny. “Uh, sorry.” He said awkwardly, and the small silence that followed was tense.

“No, it’s okay. I get it, really. It’s perfectly normal to stalk your best-friend rival.” Danny put a hand on Jon’s shoulder as if in consolidation. “I’m sorry, but you’ll never figure out my secret platonic wooing techniques.” Jon snorted and all of the tension in the air dissipated. 

“Can we be friends too?” He asked with a genuine smile. It was like pure sunshine, so bright and blinding. 

“Befriending your bff rival.” Danny hummed in contemplation before cracking and returning Jon’s smile. “Sure, why not?” Jon immediately perked up and wrapped an arm around Danny’s shoulder. It was then that Danny realized that Jon was taller than him. Well, that was kind of odd. Danny was used to being taller than most people that weren’t Dash. 

“Great! Want to get ice cream? I’m craving Rocky Road right now.” Jon asked, still with his arms around him. Danny didn’t really care, considering he did the same with Sam and Tucker. He was, however, concerned by how murderous Damian’s glare looked. He debated on teasing the boy, but it would probably make him even more frustrated. Best not add fuel to the flame. 

“Sure, I’m thinking choco mint. What about you Damian?” Danny asked.

“Vanilla.” 

—*—

“Okay, but I’m telling you, my two friends literally caused a high school version of the Cold War freshman year over the school lunch. Half the student body was pro meat and half was pro vegetarianism.” Danny went on to give a detailed account of just what exactly happened. Both Damian and Jon were enthralled by the story, and both were surprised by how much bullshit Danny’s school lets happen. Gotham Academy would be having a field day with detentions if anyone tried to pull what Sam and Tucker did. 

“How were they not suspended?” Jon asked. Danny just shrugged. 

“The Lunch Lady showed up and nearly destroyed the school.” The ghost, that is. Casper High’s lunch ladies were marvelous people. At Damian’s deepening glare, Danny added “my school is pretty awful at containing the ruckus that happens within its walls.” Not just the ghostly kind, either. He still bitterly remembers how Dash would always be off the hook no matter how many black eyes he gave Danny. It was an accident his ass; he was so tired of hearing that excuse. 

“I see.” Damian nodded and took a bite off his ice cream. “Why haven’t you left it yet?” He then asked. Danny blinked, not having expected that question. He did consider transferring out at some point, but he knew it would never happen. 

“My sister Jazz goes there, and so do my two best friends. Not to mention I doubt my parents would go through the trouble of transferring me out unless they absolutely had to.” Also, since the school was so lax, it gave Danny the perfect openings to go ghost when he needed to without having to worry about functioning security cameras or someone noticing his sporadic absences. 

“Your parents seem negligent.” Damian pointed out causing Danny to cringe; he did give Damian that impression, didn’t he? 

“They aren’t negligent per say, they’re just…” so invested in ghosts and taking down his alter ego that they don’t have enough time to actually be parents. He didn’t blame them though, catching ghosts was their passion and they do try to be decent enough parents to Jazz and himself when they remember they have kids. Okay, that sounded a bit bitter even to Danny. Even if they had a murder boner for his ghost self, they still probably loved him. Well, they loved the human half at least. 

He wished they’d love the ghost half too. He doubted it though, considering he’s seen all the shit they’ve built to destroy him. He’s ever thankful that they’re too easily distracted to notice Danny altering all of the devices they’ve made so that they’re a lot less lethal or painful. He’d have to remember to do that when he returned from his trip, lest he gets surprised by a painful ecto-gun mark 37. 

“Hey, sorry if we got a bit close to home. You don’t have to talk about them if you’re not comfortable.” Jon said and Danny blinked, noticing he zoned out on them. He forced a smile and shook his head. 

“Nah, it’s fine. I just got lost in thought. My parents are just busy, is all.” He was proud his voice didn’t fall flat, but it seemed that wasn’t enough to dissuade his two new Gotham friends from sharing worried glances (or in Damian’s case a worried glare). “Seriously, I’m fine. They’re fine.” He insisted, knowing that an abrupt subject change would look bad. 

“You make a lackluster argument,” Damian said as a matter of fact, “but I will concede for now.” 

“Oh how gracious you are, my lord. I’m seriously glad you do because I’m pretty sure you can kick my ass with just a look.” Danny cheered, banter, jeering, making jokes, that was how he always dealt with uncomfortable conversations. He took pleasure in the fact that Damian’s scowl deepened, but Danny’s grin was undeterred. 

The trio of teenagers walked around Gotham companionably for a couple hours while they waited for the conference to be over and the gala to start. Danny turned the conversation away from himself and instead towards Jon and Damian; he really wanted to know if the grass was really greener on the richer, relatively normal side of the fence. Damian’s background was a bit of a mystery, but Danny had to wonder what it was like to be raised under the roof of one of the most influential and richest men in the world like Bruce Wayne. Sam might come from a rich family too, but her and her parents’ relationship was as strained as a typical fishing line against a whale shark. 

What Danny did notice was that Damian mostly criticized and badmouthed his brothers, often calling them imbeciles or incompetent, but it oddly enough had a tone of admiration and fondness. It probably felt weird being the only sibling that wasn’t adopted, though Danny doubted Damian cared too much about that. The boy didn’t seem to value the opinions of others much, which was fair considering he was pretty much set for life and also a genius in his own right.

Jon seemed more loving and cheerful when it came to talking about his family, as if he were an open book. He was proud of both of his parents’ achievements and simply adored his older brother, even if he was a bit estranged from the rest of his family. Jon also spoke of all of his friends and even how hilarious it was to attend Gotham Academy with Damian; apparently there was no boring day with Wayne.

Overall, Danny had a really good time; a much more enjoyable time compared to this morning. It was almost enough to make him forget about how awful the night was going to be. 


End file.
